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2006-01-11 - 11.45pm��previous entry��next entry
19 weeks pregnant! - double pushchairs and other stuff
Oh my goodness, 19 weeks! I soooooo meant to update before 19 weeks, but here we are all the same. Time is just slipping through my fingers like sand! ONE more week until I am halfway through my pregnancy! In fact I am already halfway to full-term (well, 38 weeks anyway, so well into term)! And I have NINETEEN DAYS till my scan! Or two weeks and five days. Ohhh I am so excited!! It feels a little surreal though, that it is actually going to happen. I am having a bit of a surreal patch in general though, with this pregnancy at the moment. It all just seems a bit too "far out" that I'm really growing a baby, even though I see my belly and feel the kicks. So weird that I haven't really got it into my head properly sometimes!
Anyway. This baby is a BOY. I am just sure of it. Guess what I have started LOVING to eat in the last 4 days?? Yup, salad and homemade vinegraitte dressing! Just like with Arthur, and bang at the same time as well (it started at 19 weeks with Arthur). BUT, it's not as overpowering as last time (yet) and I don't have to have it like 6 times a day, and it doesn't have to be with tomatoes. I just feel like eating it more often, and REALLY enjoy it when I do, and I confess I even lick the plate after I'm done (a practise that I HATE when other people do it, and never do it myself!) just to finish off the dressing! But I am not bothered about whether there are tomatoes in it. I just want lettuce. Lettuce, lettuce, and lettuce. With a bit of cucumber maybe. And lettuce. Although I am ultra thirsty these days, and anything juicy is something I seem to want to eat as a result.
Sooo I say it's a boy. I will honestly be so surprised now if we find out it's a girl at the scan! But I'm happy about it. I feel so sure Sprout is a boy that I can't seem to help slipping up when I think of "him" in my mind, using the name we've chosen for a boy instead of "Sprout". That's an unwise move before knowing for sure at the scan, so I'm trying not to, but it's kind of weirdly automatic. Another thing that makes me think it's a boy :)
Today I went to the doctor's because lately I have been wondering about whether I might have a little UTI a-starting. I have test sticks at home but they aren't stored properly and have been sitting around since LAST pregnancy (!) so they aren't exactly reliable. I am peeing soooo much more in the last few days. Like back to first trimester peeing. I pee all night long - 5 times last night. And very frequently in the day too, which is all weird for me. I am not drinking enough fluids so it can't be that. Sometimes I pee and then need to go again half an hour later. I am an infrequent pee-er by nature (even when pregnant really) so it rings alarm bells for me if I pee like crazy at a time of pregnancy when I don't normally do so.
Plus I have been feeling generally achy and crampy low down, but I knew that could have been my womb stretching and growing and stuff. Sometimes my side aches when I need to pee badly. So I peed on a test stick this morning and wasn't sure if there was protein showing up (the colour is going on the sticks!). I frequently have a little protein in my urine when there is nothing wrong - always have had, so I know that isn't necessarily an indication of infection for me. But it's definitely not something to play around with in pregnancy, so I made an appt today and took a sample with me. It tested fine at the doctor's, which was a relief, but she said she'd send it to the lab anyway. She is pretty sure I don't have a UTI though :) I'm glad I checked it out. She told me it can be normal for the peeing to increase in frequency again as early as halfway through pregnancy!!!!! Yaargh! I certainly don't remember that starting up again till nearer my 3rd trimester! I can't believe I am peeing like crazy around the clock again ALREADY! I feel like I only just had a few weeks of once-a-night, and now here we go again till the end of the pregnancy! But oh well. Maybe I'm just much slacker than I used to be somewhere?! ;) Oh but I'm glad to say that my pelvic floor muscles are not letting me down (yet)!! I sneezed really violently today and did not lose one drop, hehe! ;) I have been doing my Kegels exercises more often lately. I try to remember when I am nursing Arthur, then it reminds me to do them regularly.
I still have milk! I thought it was gone in France because I couldn't express anything one evening, well, just one tiny bead appeared on one side and that was IT. But I definitely have milk at the moment. Not much at all, but it's there. I don't know if Arthur gets enough to swallow like a drink, but there's always milk on my nipple when he finishes. I think it is beginning to change to colostrum. I think. I am not sure. This is all new to me because last time I went from never having made milk to making milk, and this time I am already making milk and yet changes have to occur to make newborn milk while I am still breastfeeding! It's all very different and I can't seem to predict anything by last pregnancy, because it's a totally different situation. I know I am definitely not getting much of a change in breast size this time around, but I read on a breastfeeding board online that this is very normal and common when still breastfeeding an older baby. What is most common in that case is that you see little size changes, but get plenty of pain and discomfort! That would definitely describe my experience. Right now it is REALLY painful to nurse Arthur, but I don't care. I go till I can't bear it anymore, which is still about 10 minutes or more. It depends, as the pain is worse some days or at different times of day. Sometimes Arthur has not finished and I have to take him off because it just hurts like he is chopping off my nipple with razor blades. Slowly. But he isn't actually doing anything to damage me at all, it just FEELS like it. Hormones are weird things.
Anyway, he is still nursing just as much as always, which I'm so glad about! My milk tastes a bit salty now, sometimes. Which is exactly what I read would happen in 'Adventures in Tandem Nursing' - it is "weaning milk". My body thinks it's weaning. Think again, body! Haha! But I am beginning to notice what little milk I have left is a little thicker and stickier than usual. I usually use breastmilk to drop up Arthur's nose if he is congested with a cold or something, as it is the BEST decongestant I have come across for little ones. Antibacterial too! :) He has had a cold for a week or so, and when I managed to express a teeny tiny couple of drops to drip up his nose, I found they wouldn't drip! They were too thick! So that's different. It is still white though, so I think that maybe it is beginning to make changes towards becoming colostrum. I was leaking clearish golden colostrum at 21 weeks with Arthur, so I am expecting it any time now really. But anyway, I am so glad to still be breastfeeding :)
Sprout's update this week says he/she is 6 inches from crown to rump (15.3cm) and 8.5oz (240g)!!!! Getting so big in there! I can't WAIT to see him/her again at the scan (did I mention that lately?!)! Sprout is now regularly playing with the umbilical cord as a grab-and-pull toy, and practising breathing in and out to strengthen those lil lungs for later! It's not long now till the stage where I used to feel Arthur get the hiccups! He used to get them several times a day, every single day. I can't wait to feel a baby hiccuping away inside me again!
Sprout's tiny feet are an inch long!! What an amazing thought! I hope they are straight feet. But I love them already. They kick me so wonderfully and already FEEL like they are an inch long :) Sprout can kick pretty hard. Sprout has been quieter than usual for a couple of days, but very busy today. I felt the weirdest sensation today when I was sitting on the floor downstairs with my back against the sofa and my knees up. It was like I remember with Arthur probably around this time - I'm sure I felt Sprout turn around completely against my cervix. It was like a sudden body-thump (!!) against my cervix which took my breath away, and then a quick and not-exactly-pleasant turny-inside-outy feeling, followed by everything feeling calm again, but kicks up near my tummy button rather than down low. So I'm pretty sure Sprout did one of those tumble turn things that swimmers do to turn around at the end of a lane! I love feeling so clearly what is going on, but it does feel weeeeeeird sometimes!
This week I have been feeling soooo nesty again. It seems crazy early still, but I am so grateful for that, because there is SO much that needs doing around this house that if I were to wait till the "normal" time for nesting at the end of pregnancy, there is NO WAY I would get even a quarter of it done before the baby was here! So I'm glad to have bursts of it from this early. I lie awake at night and my mind is racing with excitement over what I can clean next and how! Also DIY projects (little ones, not huge dangerous ones!) - I am so eager to get odd jobs done around here. I need to get Neil to fetch the drill and stuff down from the loft.
My balance is really changing now. I keep finding that when I squat down, I often overbalance backwards as I do so, or stumble forwards as I get up from squatting or sitting on the floor. I just can't seem to predict my centre of gravity accurately at all! I try to lean the right way as I get up, so that I won't topple backwards or forwards, but I keep overbalancing anyway so I just must be getting it wrong! I know my body is having a big adjustment right now to its changing shape, with more weight suddenly appearing on my front and increasing rapidly! I don't have any idea how much I weight at the moment as I haven't checked since 17 weeks. I will have to jump on the scales again, but I keep forgetting.
When I look in the mirror at the moment, my face seems to have changed shape a little. It looks more filled out, shape-wise and also in the skin, if that makes sense. Like my skin is all full of fluid, but not anything like I'm retaining water. It looks to me just like a "pregnant" look. But I think it's also there because I must be gaining weight now, maybe even enough to show on my face. I have a feeling my weight gain might be very similar to my pregnancy with Arthur, as it's all so similar so far. The only exception might be my activity levels, with chasing Arthur around and stuff. I was pretty sedentary last pregnancy! Also I ate and ate whenever I felt like it, sometimes just because I COULD and I knew I would enjoy it. Some evenings lately I have contemplated a snack before bed like cereal or something, but then I have thought, well I don't really NEED to eat it. I would enjoy it, sure, and last pregnancy I felt the same and ate cereal a lot before bed. And there's nothing wrong with eating cereal before bed! But I just thought more about it this time, and realised it was just an IDEA, not a desire for food so much. So I didn't. And wasn't hungry in the night or anything as a result. I figure I am not going to go crazy watching what I eat, but I can try and be aware when I am just thinking, "Ooh, a lull in my activity levels! What shall I do? EAT?!!" and decide not to if I don't NEED to. I think that might help. But I am still eating perlenty of desserts and stuff, so I am sure my weight will do what it will and go up! I don't care. It will come down again :) I love how pregnancy makes me enjoy food so much more than when I'm not pregnant. I probably don't NEED such a high calorie intake, but I am going to take advantage and enjoy my food while I have a reason to eat more calories. I mean, I am pregnant, AND breastfeeding, AND chasing a 14-month-old around! I need more calories than ever before!
Today I found pasteurized Brie at the supermarket! Yay! I ate half of it for lunch. Mmm-hmm. HALF of it! But it was yummy :) I bought cottage cheese again. It has been on my black list since halfway through the first trimester! Now suddenly I want it again with my salads. I think I am on a dairy kick at the moment. Maybe Sprout is doing something bony?
Last week it was the 7th of Jan, and therefore only 5 months till my due date!!!! So we're in the 4 months and... stage now! Wow, it is going so fast.
I am spending most of my internet time at the moment researching double pushchairs. It's something we (mostly me!) have thought a lot about in the last month or so, and I have decided we definitely need to buy a double pushchair. Arthur will be almost 19 months when the baby is due and although he is walking well for 14 months already, I think he will still be very little for having to walk EVERYWHERE if we are out for hours or shopping or something. I also think he will be a little too young to stand on a buggy board behind the pushchair for long periods of time. And I will want him to have a place he can sit and rest while we continue to get things done on the move if he gets tired (which he's sure to do). Another idea was to keep the single pushchair for Arthur and wear the new baby in a sling. I was all for this nice earthy approach (!) thinking how cool it would look as well, but then I saw a very down-to-earth bit of advice from a mum-of-two online, that simply said that she had had the same bright idea before the baby came, and the reality of it saw her exhaustedly pushing the pushchair with her toddler in it, while her back ached under the weight of the baby in the sling and everything in her was crying out for a double pushchair! The moment I read those few lines it felt like a reality check, and I KNEW that would be me if I did that option. My back isn't the strongest in any case, and although I LOVED wearing Arthur in various slings, I haven't done it nearly as much as I had planned, simply because my back hurt so much with pretty much any sling I tried. If Sprout IS a boy, I have every expectation that he will be as hefty as his brother and grow as fast, so I'm sure the same issues will apply with slings and my back this time.
Soooo the double pushchair it is! Which is fine with me! I think we will get a fairly good amount of use out of it because Arthur will still be so young, even though he will also get out and walk a lot. A lot of the mothers who say their toddlers wouldn't go in it much and therefore the pushchairs got hardly any use, had "toddlers" who were aged between 2 and 3. We plan to buy second hand anyway, as we can't afford a new one as it is.
I have spent weeks researching online about WHICH double pushchair - there are so many to choose from, and different styles too! I have read SO many reviews, it's crazy! I need to know what suits different kinds of families and situations. In the past I have always liked the look of the tandem ones (one seat in front and the other behind) as they look so eye-catching and cosy! But those would be impractical for our little family, so they are off the list. I have researched really thoroughly from different sources and I feel pretty confident that I have covered all aspects and narrowed it down to the best ones for us.
In the end I have settled on two, both with pros and cons, which I need to find in a shop and sit Arthur in one of the seats to try it out. One of them is the Out n About Nipper which is my favourite I think! It's a 3-wheeler and extremely lightweight. Arthur has a 3-wheeler single pushchair so I know I love them. They push like a DREAM. But Arthur's is heavy (14.2kg) and folds a little bulkily. But otherwise it's great. The Nipper is only NINE kg!!! Wow! And apparently folds very compactly for a 3-wheeler. Every single reviewer raves about how beautifully it pushes and steers, and how lightweight it is. Nobody had a single bad thing to say about it. It's the top of the list for a major double pushchair review survey. The only thing that slightly bothers me when I see a photo of it, is that it looks like the seats are kind of tipped back at their most "upright" setting. Arthur likes to sit BOLT upright to see around as we're going along. He uses his hands to pull himself forward on the bar of his pushchair and rides like that, but the Nipper has no bar for him to do that. So that's my con about the Nipper.
The other one in the running is the Mamas and Papas Twin Aria. This is a 4-wheeler but it's the narrowest and lightest on the market, and very popular. It's not so high on the survey results but I really like the look of it. Also on parenting forums when someone asks "Which is the best double pushchair?!" there seem to be sooooo many people responding with the M & P Twin Aria, saying how much they love theirs, etc.
The best thing is its weight - it's only 7.4kg!!! That's practically HALF the weight of the pushchair Arthur is currently in! I have real trouble lifting Arthur's pushchair in and out of the car and stuff, so lightweight is a big priority for me, and manoeuvrability (whooaah that word does NOT look right, but my dictionary says that it is!). The Twin Aria DOES have cons however. The narrow, lightweight thing sort of works against it - the seats are a little too narrow for big toddlers (which means my children will probably not suit it!) and once your little ones get heavier, it gets more difficult to manoeuvre and steer. Which isn't good. But it's generally a lot cheaper than the Nipper and more compact, etc. It folds to FREESTANDING and can fit easily in a cluttered hallway or the boot of even a small car. I have read a LOT of great reviews for this pushchair as well as the Nipper. So I'm not sure which would suit us best. The seats look to me like they are a little more upright than the Nipper, but what I really need to do is test drive both of them so I can really see if Arthur fits in them and if he can sit up enough, etc.
I have been phoning and searching online to find my nearest stockists and the Nipper is stocked a 10 minute drive away, but the Twin Aria is NOWHERE!!! Mamas and Papas couldn't even tell me where on earth I might find one when I phoned them up! All my local (ish) M & P stockists don't stock that actual pushchair (I phoned them and asked), so I have no idea where I'm meant to try it out and see if Arthur actually fits in the seats. I reckon I should ask at a parenting board and beg someone to measure their Twin Aria seats for me! Then I can get some idea.
Sooo that has kept me busy! In the meantime I am on the lookout for either pushchair CHEAPLY second-hand. So far there are some on eBay, so I'm watching them to see what kind of prices they finish at.
Anyway, that was a long waffle about double pushchairs! It's very dull to most people, but highly exciting to me! :) I can't wait to be pushing my TWO little ones (boys??) around town in one of those pushchairs, side by side, my own TWO little ones!!! My heart just swells at the idea of seeing my two children together, and I feel fit to burst that other people will see them too. I just feel so proud of them as a pair already :)
We went to church on Sunday for the first time in ages. It was so nice! People noticed I am pregnant just by looking at me :) I LOVE that! They just looked at my belly and said, "Congratulations!" Yay! I found out that ANOTHER of my good friends at church is pregnant! I am so excited because I know she and her husband have been trying for aaaages. We used to talk about feelings - how it's hard not knowing why and waiting - and about my experience with TTC Arthur, etc. So I'm sooooo excited that she is pregnant! I jumped up and down and generally made a fool of myself ;) She is 14 weeks, so now there are four of us due within the same 7 weeks from mid-May to early July! How fun! I hope we don't move before then. I am really looking forward to sharing this pregnancy with the other girls' pregnancies now!
It was fun also to see Katie (who is due 2 days after me). I am showing WAY more than Katie, which feels weird seeing as we're exactly the same amount pregnant with our second babies, but then I remember she only had a very little bump with her first, so that's probably why. I was huge of course! ;)
Okay it is stupidly late so I have to go to bed. Lately the ONLY times I get a chance to update are very late at night when I desperately need (and want!) to be sleeping. If I don't do it then, I just won't get chance to update my diaries at all at the moment. Arthur currently takes 2 half hour naps in the day (unpredictably though), and keeps me so busy during every waking moment that I don't get chance to SIT at the computer, let alone update anymore! Then he has become difficult to settle to sleep at bedtime, so our Arthur-free evening starts later now. And lately he is wakeful during the evening. Plus we have to eat. Then he seems to be waking crazy frequently at night at the moment, despite the fact that I no longer nurse him at night. Which is disheartening and exhausting! And it leaves me NO time to do anything that requires any time online, like updating my diaries. I SO wish I had time to do things like that. I am finding it hard. This should be in my other diary, but yeah, see above problem. So once in a few days or a week I HAVE to make myself stay up way too late to fit a diary entry in. I really want to keep updating as often as I can - it's like I need it, sometimes. And I hate to have gaps when I read back in the future. So here I am at 12.47am. Urgh. But I'm going to bed!
Thank you so much for all the lovely notes and messages! :) I appreciate them all so much! I would love to comment on some of them more but I run out of time. But thank you!!! xx
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